Mia Couto

Mia Couto (born 5 July 1955), pseudonym of António Emílio Leite Couto, is a Mozambican writer and the winner of the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 2013 Camões Prize.

Mia Couto (2006)

Quotes

Confession of the Lioness: A Novel

• Every morning the gazelle wakes up knowing she must run faster than the lion or will be dead. Every morning the lion wakes up knowing he must run faster than the gazelle or he'll starve. It doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun rises you better start to run.

• In war, the poor are killed. In peace, the poor dies.

• There is only a way of escape from a place: is leaving ourselves. There is only a way of leaving ourselves: is loving someone. Só há um modo de escapar de um lugar: é sairmos de nós. Só há um modo de sairmos de nós: é amarmos alguém.

Sleepwalking Land

- I don't like blacks, Kindzu.
- What? So, who do you like? The whites?
- I do not, too.
- I already know: you likes the indians, your race.
- No. I like mens that doesn't have a race. That's why I like you, Kindzu.